Caste politics rule roost in mayoral polls

By CT reporter
MANGALORE : There remains no doubt that it was caste politics that reigned supreme in the elections to the post of mayor and deputy mayor of Mangalore, that was held recently. But at the same time, it is equally true that the ruling party leaders have miserably failed in giving equal representation to all castes.
The ruling Congress in the city corporation, has corporators belonging to various cases and communities. The Congress which has the credit of ruling the MCC for the highest number of times, however has failed in giving due representation to all castes and communities while electing the mayor.
So far not even a single member of the Mogaveera community has risen to the top post. Not that the community lacked eligible candidates, but the party has not thought them as so.
This time with the post reserved for a general category, there was some scope to give the post to a lady belonging to backward caste, but no, with the caste politics reigning supreme, even that could not be materialised.
Christian too sore with Cong
On the other hand there is resentment among members of the Christian community too with many complaining that Christian candidates have been neglected while electing mayors during the past five year period.
The Mangalore city corporation has a total of 60 wards and of the 60 seats , 44 are occupied by Congress corporators, 14 by BJP and 2 independents.
Of the 44 Congress corporators, eight are Christians while in BJP there is one Christian corporator. In toto there are nine Christian corporators in the Mangalore city corporation.
But, during the present tenure, the Congress has not preferred to give the mayor post to a Christian candidate even once and this, many Christians believe was an insult to the around 2 lakh Christian population of the city.
Of the eight Christian Congress corporators, three have identified themselves with the Blasius faction while six are Poojari loyalists.
So far in the history of the Mangalore city corporartion, PM Castelino, Eunice Britto and Hilda Alva had occupied the post of mayor while Lancelot Pinto had once become deputy mayor.
Today, Christians in the Congress are of the opinion that the Congress should have at least offered the mayor post to their candidate this time keeping an eye on the next assembly elections.
There are many who even point out that while a Muslim corporator was made mayor last time, this time the deputy mayor’s post has gone to another Muslim corporator.
This time too as earlier, the Congress is sure to make a patch work attempt by offering standing committee presidentships to the Christian candidates.